From your post:

laptop he uses for university. He’s not a tinkerer and wants something that just works.

Mint:

Linux Mint is known for being very user-friendly and stable. Also easy to get help online.

Fedora:

have to install media codecs via terminal

university wifi eduroam doesn’t work on Fedora

less help on the web for Fedora than Mint.

Unless you’re sure that screen stuttering is going to be a major annoyance, you know what I am going to suggest.